Project Summary

The building sector is responsible for more than 60% of resource use in Europe with more than 30 - 50% of material use taking place in the housing construction sector. The sector also generates about one third of all waste in the EU. It is because of these staggering statistics that increasing resource efficiency in the housing sector is of great importance for a sustainable society.

Main objective of project CHARM: optimise (re)use of material and natural resources

The main project objective of CHARM is to optimise (re)use of material and natural resources. Other objective is to demonstrate innovative approaches for housing renovation and asset management that prevent downcycling. The project also wants to secure adoption of these approaches within the housing organisation partners, as well as to accelerate the adoption of such approaches throughout the social housing industry.

Asset management approach

Currently, the trend is to improve recycling of building materials from demolition waste. This often leads to downcycling, reducing the use value of materials. For example, concrete from buildings being converted to form the foundations of roads. A circular economy promotes optimal reuse of building materials at at least an equivalent value, such as bricks reused as bricks. CHARM develops and implements an asset management approach that prevents downcycling of materials in renovation and construction of social rented dwellings by creating:

circular building strategies tested in demonstration exemplars

guidelines for a circular procurement strategy for social housing organisations

material exchange platforms to enable circular flows of materials and building components in the social rented sector

The CHARM building strategies will lead to 36% of materials being prevented from downcycling, compared to the current maximum of 10%. This is equivalent to 40.000 tonnes of annual material recovery by the project partners alone. Dissemination and uptake of the results in the social rented sector in the NWE region will be achieved through the involvement of European, as well as national, innovation exchange platforms.

Activities

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Partners of project CHARM

Lead partner of project CHARM is Delft University of Technology. The social housing organisations involved in Interreg NWE project CHARM are: Zonnige Kempen from Belgium, Paris Habitat from France, Stichting Woonbedrijf SWS.Hhvl from the Netherlands and Accord Housing Assocation from the United Kingdom. The project is actively supported by: European Federation for Living (EFL), Kamp C and the University of Birmingham. Co-partners are l'union sociale pour l'habitat and Sustainable Housing Action Partnership (SHAP). Project CHARM is funded by Interreg NWE and financially supported by Provincie Noord-Holland.

The project output will be jointly generated by social housing organisations from 4 countries in theInterreg North-West Europe (NWE) region. Interreg NWE is a European Territorial Cooperation programme with the ambition to make the North-West Europe area a key economic player and an attractive place to work and live, with high levels of innovation, sustainability and cohesion.

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CHARM addresses the challenge to create a resource efficient society, focussing on social housing. The housing organisation partners of CHARM have begun to experiment with more circular approaches towards construction and renovation. Here, you will find more information on these experiments, which we call 'demonstration exemplars'.

The third Dresden Nexus Conference will take place from the3rd – 5th of June 2020inDresden(Germany) under the theme “Circular Economy in a Sustainable Society”. This is an international conference series dedicated to advancing research and the implementation of a Nexus Approach to resource management. DNC2020 aims to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable economy by focusing on identifying and discussing the concepts that nexus thinking offers to support the transition towards a circular economy.

On the 8th and 9th of June 2020, the Creative Circular Economy Approaches to Eliminate Plastics Waste Conference will be held in Sheffield (UK). The meeting will bring together scientists, engineers, social scientists, researchers from the arts and humanities and other interested parties from academia, industry and government to discuss innovations and advances in the circular economy for plastics.

BEYOND 2020 is considered to be one of the world’s most prestigious conferences and forums in the field of sustainable built environment. We expect to welcome about 2000 delegates from all over the world in the academia, industry, finance and policy sector. Join us in this exciting journey towards the future! This event will be held on the 9th until the 11th of of June 2020 in Gothenburg (Sweden).

On the 22nd of June until the 3rd of July 2020 the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment of TU Delft is organising the Summerschool: Sustainable Housing from a European Perspective. Venue: Delft (the Netherlands). Housing is of key importance for societies. It drives the economy and is a key issue for sustainable urban and regional development in growing as well as declining areas. This course focuses on sustainable housing development and deals with environmental as well as economic and social sustainability.

What does the climate crisis mean for our housing stock? How can we build sustainable housing that supports the transition to a circular economy? What are the implications for affordability and for our tenants? These and many other questions will be discussed in the 2020 edition of the European Summer School on the 29th of June until the 2nd of July 2020 in Bochum (Germany).

From the 15th until the 17th of September 2020 the Cities and Citizens Energy Forum will take place in Heerlen (the Netherlands). This meeting will discuss the latest developments in local energy policies. Here, you will get updates on city initiatives, share next practices and coordinate policy work towards EU institutions. It is the meeting point for decision-makers and practitioners from public organisations, business, research and civil society.

B for Planet is the prime global event for sustainability, bringing together international business leaders to discuss and propose solutions to the big challenges currently facing humanity. Date of the event: 22nd and 23rd of September 2020. Venue: Barcelona (Spain).

The 2nd International Conference on Circularity in the Built Environment (CiBEn) aims at becoming a major point of contact between researchers, engineers and practitioners on the area of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) processing and valorization. The conference is being held from the 22nd until the 24th of September 2020 in Delft (the Netherlands).

The European Federation for Living is one of the largest European networks in the affordable housing sector. The EFL Autumn Conference will be held in Stuttgart (Germany) on the 21st - 23rd of October 2020.

This year, the European event on the circular economy will take place in Barcelona. This is the annual event where you can meet cross- sectorial delegates and companies from Europe and all over the world. Date: 16th until 19th of November 2020. Venue: Barcelona (Spain).

The plastics transformation machine never stops. We are moving towards sustainability through the greater use of new materials in the plastics sector. We make you a part of our commitment to environmental challenges. From the 1st until the 4th of December 2020 this event is being held in Barcelona (Spain).

In the newsletter you can read more about: the upcoming Inspiration Day in Westerlo, Belgium; the call for joining the research of TU Delft; the Green Deal of the EU; and the use of VR technology by Woonbedrijf. Read More

On the 14th of February 2020, the second edition of the Inspiration Day will be held. This time it will be in Westerlo, Belgium. Are you interested to attend this event? You are more than welcome to join us! Read More

In the month of March 2020, TU Delft is going to conduct a research to map the state of art in North-Western European housing organisations in terms of their circularity goals and how they assess the use of digital technologies. Read More